Jam Karet: February 2020
There you go, the year 2020!
10 years ago I was in the midst of preparing my move from Melbourne to NYC. Living in NYC had long been my dream. I left Australia with a bag of clothes, ten grand in the bank account, and a tourist visa to enter the USA. Getting a job was not going to be a walk in the park. Unemployment was high in the US…double digit percentages in most of the country, courtesy of the 2007–2009 recession. I touched down at JFK on a grey Sunday afternoon, it was 28-Feb-2010. That marked the tangible beginning of the USA adventure that lasted six and a half years and brought me many wonderful experiences and people.
3 years ago, on Wednesday, 4-Jan-2017, Margot and I touched down in Bali, the tangible beginning of the Bali adventure that will last who-knows-how-many years. In recent weeks I have been struggling to create time to write. What’s more, my mind has mostly been occupied with the nuts and bolts of our project. Nuts and bolts seemingly provide less inspiration to write. Now the clock has counted down too far and I throw a Hail Mary (to borrow an expression I picked up in the USA).
1 year ago we made our spare room available on Airbnb. On average, we are booked 70% of the time. That’s above the average occupancy rate in Bali. What can we say about people who choose to stay in our neck of the woods? By and large, it’s a traveler seeking experiences off the beaten path and into natural, rural, or tranquil surroundings. About half of our guests choose to join our star team member Du on a hike and picnic through local forest and farmland. The hot springs are always popular too. And so is our garden. To that end we recently added a farming experience to our offerings. Time will tell how much appetite our guests have for a morning of getting intimate with Mother Earth and learning about growing edible plants. Du is a natural guiding guests through the garden and beyond. Certainly they enjoy Du cooking a lunch or dinner with ingredients grown right outside the kitchen, whether they choose to participate in the cooking or not. Primarily our guests are European with the remainder mostly from Asia and North America. On average guests stay about two or three nights. Is it a clearly defined guest profile? Nah, not yet but we’re learning more every time a guest walks through the door. Personally, I’m curious to know if the guest profile will change with a higher price point.
We are always looking to learn from the successes and failures of early ideas. Sometimes it feels like I’m back to my career in applied research: running finite experiments to test a hypothesis. If proven right, we have de-risked the project a little. If proven wrong, we have valuable information to inform the next hypothesis. Unfortunately, our plan to build a little bamboo cabin halfway up the mountain has been delayed. We were on the brink of construction, with only a family discussion regarding an access path to the cabin to square away. During the discussion it became apparent that we no longer had consensus with all members of the family who share ownership of the land. Disappointing, it was an excellent spot for a cabin and Margot, Du, and I were all excited to get this up and running. We designed the cabin so it can be built just about anywhere, indeed the design is such that it can be taken down and rebuilt. We will build it somewhere, it’s only a matter of time.
The cabin is also meant to inform elements of the accommodation of our boutique retreat. Along with our architect design studio Alexis Dornier, we have put more detail on the design of the ‘communal space’. This space houses the restaurant, a lounge area, a space for wellness programs, and a small multi-functional space. The idea is that you will enter this space via a pedestrian bridge that runs over a gulley. You can find a rendering here on Alexis Dornier’s Instagram. Below are two more renderings and a floor plan.
It is too early to talk about traction (as in revenue, number of guests, etc.). The focus is on progress as defined by reducing project risk. The size of a perceived risk is not always what you think it is at the outset. Obtaining the permits needed to start construction turns out to be an instance of major risk reduction, although I’m afraid to say we are not quite there yet (!). The protracted process with the head office of the regency seemingly does not end. Right now it feels a lot like slow dancing with your sister. :-|
One of the more fun, although also challenging, things we are working on is to give the identity of our brand more shape. The objective of the current exercise is to develop a creative positioning for the project, based on a set of
brand values, and relevant to an agreed target market. We have our good friend Kate from Ultra Studio leading this process and right off the bat she gave us some really big questions about what this project is, what it means to us, why are we doing it, what do we stand for, what does success mean, etc. It is generating lots of stimulating conversation between Margot and I, and indeed with friends, family, and guests. It is also forcing us to closely examine and prioritise our values, get crystal clear on the value we bring, and how we create an emotional connection with guests. I dare say that in the next update we can share a bit more of what we’ve been working on and perhaps get some feedback from you too.
We have exhausted our current project budget and it is not yet certain what the next budget looks like or when it might arrive. For now we stay scrappy and make progress with limited resources. Is now a time to shift to all-out fundraising? I’m not sure, I keep thinking about it and there is much to weigh up in answering that question. I will seek some advice on it. If I am to take Margot’s advice I ought to head to our garden. Apparently, there isn’t an analogy for a problem and a solution you cannot find in the garden. Speaking of Margot, she is still doing her thing every Sunday with the kids. And speaking of limited resources, the word on the street is the availability of water. Some readers may remember from a previous post that communities around here have to organise their own water supply. People in our village break into smaller groups and find a water spring halfway up the mountain and lay PVC pipes to the houses in the group. The rain season was late to arrive this year and I guess the water tables were low as more than a few springs dried up. Normally, after a few weeks of rain season they flow again but some are apparently are still dry. Thus the topic of conversation among some of our neighbours. We are now in our second year of using rainwater as our source. It’s a very viable solution if you can store sufficient volume relative to your usage to last you through the three months where it doesn’t rain much at all.
Lastly, at the risk of coming across a little sappy, a shout-out to my mother: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I appreciate your continued support and positivity. You are always ready to lend an ear and give a broader, philosophical perspective to remind me that everything in life is a journey, and mostly a journey within yourself. Here’s to many more years, cheers!
